Recognized as an official state cemetery in 1859, the cemetery was started in the 1850s and the first burials occurred between 1853 and 1856. Some of Fremont's most well-known names are on the gravestones, including Herman Eggers and Roger Blacow. Other early pioneers include Captain Caleb Cook Scott, a native of Nova Scotia, who sailed his way around the Horn of Magellan in South America on his way to a new life in the Bay Area, and settled along side the Alameda creek near Niles.